It’s already 9 PM here.

I’m sitting at Blender, trying to decide what to write about.

But you know how Blender is…I got distracted. Ended up adding fog to my “little island” scene. I wanted a more mysterious island.

Couldn’t get the fog working with a plain cube, like usual. So I created something that I’ve decided to call “soft fog.”

And, suddenly, I had something to write about.

Today I’ll show you how to add a bit of fog to your scene. It didn’t work out extremely well on mine, since it’s so empty.

But on a bigger scene, with foreground and background elements, it would look much nicer.

Have a look at the result:

1 Technique

The “soft fog” works a lot like ordinary fog.

You take a cube, then give it a Principled Volume shader, connected to the Volume output. Set a light density.

But that’s too solid, too regular. I wanted fog that got less dense up high, and denser down low (like some real fog does.)

So the answer: the Z object coordinates.

Take a Texture Coordinate node and attach the Object socket to a Separate XYZ. That Z output will give you a useful gradient going up the object—just plug it into a ColorRamp, and plug that into the Density on the shader.

Adjust laboriously until it looks nice.

“But Samuel, we want a picture. Show us a picture.”

Fine:

1 Low Poly Pick

This is by a guy called Bob Martin.

It’s one of the better low poly pine trees I’ve seen. It’s nice because it’s pretty detailed, but still not that detailed.

The only thing I would change would be to add some thickness to the “leaves.“ It’d look more interesting.

Also, the rocks could use some work—they’re very basic. That’s a cool material though.

Can't think what to blend?

Try something paper. Some crazy origami, or a a cut-out butterfly.

P.S. Chapter 3 finally lives! If you’re into that kind of thing.

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